Tag: Flood

An article in The Lancet argues that earthquakes are particularly devastating when compared with other natural disasters. Earthquakes “frequently affect populous urban areas with poor structural standards” and they impair emergency responders. Shifting tectonic plates killed more than 780,000 people in the last decade. (more)

While New York City escaped the worst of Tropical Storm Irene, much of Vermont did not. The state saw bridges washed away, roads battered and power lines downed in the midst of what officials say is the worst flooding in more than 80 years. (more)

The National Resources Defense Council has given us a view from above on extreme temperature, smog and allergen pollution, drought and flood vulnerability in the United States for select periods over the last two decades. (more)

New details are emerging that indicate the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan is far worse than previously known, with three of the four affected reactors experiencing full meltdowns. Meanwhile, in the U.S., massive flooding along the Missouri River has put Nebraska’s two nuclear plants, both near Omaha, on alert.

Scientists fear that farm chemicals carried from fields into the Mississippi River by this spring’s record floods will create the largest “dead zone” the Gulf of Mexico has seen since measurements were first taken in 1985. (more)

For all the advantages that record snowpacks offer regions susceptible to summertime drought, a sudden warming of temperatures could soon release millions of gallons of water into river channels and narrow canyons, flooding cities and towns throughout the American West. (more)

More than 500 people have been killed in the mountain towns of Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state, with officials fearing that the toll will go higher as massive flooding and mudslides continue in the region.

The U.N. has begun flying tents into the West African country of Benin to shelter some of the hundreds of thousands of people chased from their homes by heavy flooding after months of heavy rains. Adding to the misery is an outbreak of cholera. two-thirds

The red sludge that, in the words of one official, extinguished all life in Hungary’s Marcal River has now reached the blue Danube, the second longest river in Europe. The disaster began at a waste reservoir in western Hungary where 33 million cubic feet of toxic material began its long spill, reaching more than 6.5 feet high in places.

The Nigerian government may or may not have warned residents that it would open up the floodgates of two dams in the northern part of the country last month, unleashing a deluge of water that has displaced more than 2 million people.

Weeks of unrelenting rains triggered a series of landslides in the Guatemalan town of Alaska on the Pan-American Highway, burying as many as 300 people. President Alvaro Colom warned that thousands more people are at risk as the government runs out of money to deal with the crisis.

New flooding in Pakistan continues to take a devastating toll on the country, as floodwaters sweep southward and have led to the displacement of an estimated 1 million people in Sindh province in just two days.

The sheer suffering and human cost of Pakistan’s devastating floods are mounting daily, and frustration with the nation’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, is on the rise as well—and Zardari’s standing with the public was shaky enough before disaster struck.

Floods in northwest Pakistan have taken the lives of more than 1,000 people, officials say. About 30,000 Pakistani troops have joined the rescue and relief effort as monsoon rains threaten to cause additional flooding.

More than 300 people have died in monsoon floods in Pakistan. The devastating floodwaters—the worst in decades—carried away victims, destroyed infrastructure and displaced some 400,000 people, officials told news outlets. Updated

In 1998, 4,000 people died in the Yangtze floods in China. Now the country is bracing for its worst flooding since then as Typhoon Conson, which has already killed 38 people in the Philippines, closes in on China’s southern coast.

Update: Eighteen people have been confirmed killed after flash floods swept through a campground in western Arkansas early Friday morning. Authorities on Sunday said three people were still missing. Earlier reports had said dozens more were missing and feared dead.

The Polish people are having a rough time of it this spring. At least 14 people have died in recent days after Poland’s largest river, the Vistula, flooded an area some 50 miles away from Warsaw, and the capital city is in danger of becoming waterlogged as well.

Last weekend was a very wet one for residents of Nashville, Tenn., as record flooding from the Cumberland River displaced thousands, claimed 12 lives and continued to pose a watery threat to the southeastern city that was expected to persist through Tuesday.

Critics and challengers of Naomi Klein’s work had better take a close look at her latest book, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” before launching their attacks. This is one writer whose research and documentation are so exhaustive that would-be detractors will not only find her analysis to be dauntingly watertight, even if they don’t share her views about the unnatural disasters enabled by free-market capitalism, but they might also discover that some of her source material seems strangely familiar.

Several Midwestern states, including Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, have been hit hard by floods this week as rivers rose far beyond their normal levels. In Cedar Rivers, Iowa, a whole hospital had been evacuated, thousands of residents had fled their homes and over 400 city blocks were under water by Friday.

Floodwaters are threatening the lives of millions in South Asia, drenching parts of northern India as well as Bangladesh and Nepal, where aid organizations are scrambling to bring in food and other assistance before hunger and disease claim more lives.

More than 200 people have died in Karachi, Pakistan, as a result of storms that ravaged the city. Heavy rain, gale-force winds and flooding obliterated many homes, while falling trees, billboards and power lines wreaked further havoc. At least 45 people have also died in southern India.

Much of the capital of Indonesia is under 10 feet of muddy water after days of torrential rain caused devastating floods. Hundreds of thousands of people already have been displaced, and experts warn that the situation may worsen, with another week of heavy rain on the way.

In what officials are calling a “strategic pause,” work on New Orleans’ levees is at a standstill. The Army Corps of Engineers says it has been delayed by engineering, budget and local-government hurdles, but critics—including some inside the corps—say the agency is simply dragging its feet. (h/t: Crooks and Liars)